gustavmahlerboard.com
General Category => Gustav Mahler and Related Discussions => Topic started by: alpsman on June 30, 2008, 11:02:57 PM
-
Good as recordings and discs maybe, i think the live, real event is most precious.
My greater Mahler concerts were:
Abbado/Berlin PO Symphony 3(1998)
Sinopoli/Staatskapele Dresden Symphony 9(1997)
Tilson Thomas/London SO Symphony 7(2000)
Inbal/National orchestra France Symphony 4(1992)
Neumann/Czech PO Symphony 1(1986)
Abbado/BPO M5(1993)
For the NOT so good concerts, some surprises
Jansons M2(with Oslo) and M1(with BRSO last year)
Ozawa M6/BSO
Fedoseyev M9/VSO(the Vienna symphony not the Philharmoniker)
Mehta M1/Israel PO
Your turn
-
My very first classical concert as a 15 yr old: Mahler 7th Solti CSO when they were touring Central Illinois. Started my life long love affair with Mahler.
-
Good as recordings and discs maybe, i think the live, real event is most precious.
My greater Mahler concerts were:
Abbado/Berlin PO Symphony 3(1998)
Sinopoli/Staatskapele Dresden Symphony 9(1997)
Tilson Thomas/London SO Symphony 7(2000)
Inbal/National orchestra France Symphony 4(1992)
Neumann/Czech PO Symphony 1(1986)
Abbado/BPO M5(1993)
For the NOT so good concerts, some surprises
Jansons M2(with Oslo) and M1(with BRSO last year)
Ozawa M6/BSO
Fedoseyev M9/VSO(the Vienna symphony not the Philharmoniker)
Mehta M1/Israel PO
Your turn
You mean you really have been to all these concerts?? Wow, I envy you :o
I've been to few and the best I can recall is
Chailly/RCO DLVDE
in Boston in early 90's.
I can't recall the tenor but the alto was ven Nes. Another impressive concert was Ozawa/BSO M9th in Boston around the time Philips was recording Ozawa's Mahler cycle.
John,
-
Bernstein/VPO M5 (Davies Hall, S.F. - far better than the commercial recording)
Bernstein/VPO M6 (Carenegie Hall, N.Y.)
Tennstedt/LPO M2 (Royal Festival Hall)
George Cleve/San Jose S.O. M3 (Flint Center, Cupertino)
Levine/VPO M3 (Carnegie Hall; but I liked the George Cleve performance even better)
MTT/SFSO M8 (Davies Hall; the earlier 1998 performance - far better than his later ones)
De Waart/SFSO M5 (Davies Hall)
Riccardo Muti/Philly M1 (Davies Hall, S.F.)
Zinman/SFSO M6 (Davies Hall - with the electronically enhanced hammer strokes)
Haitink/Concertgebouw M7 (Davies Hall, S.F.)
De Waart/SFSO M7 (every bit as good as the Haitink one, and far, FAR better than MTT's)
Barenboim/CSO M7 (Carnegie Hall)
A. Litton/Dallas S.O. M8 (Meyerson Hall, Dallas)
Ozawa/Saito Kinen S.O. M9 (Davies Hall, S.F - the audience was perfectly silent!!!)
Slatkin/SFSO M10 - Mazzetti version (Davies Hall)
Chailly/Concertgebouw "DLvdE" with Jard Van Ness, mezzo (Davies Hall - forgot who the tenor was)
Jessye Norman/George Cleve/S.J.S.O. "DLvdE" (notable for J.N.'s outstanding vocal contribution!)
Eric Kujawsky/Redwood Symphony M6 (I had strong influence over many of the percussion issues; particularly doublings)
Kujawsky/Redwood Symphony M3 (again, the percussion were outstanding. Yours truly covered many utility parts)
* I would have included a G. Schwarz/Seattle S.O. M3 (Benaroya Hall), IF they hadn't played the tambourine part on a military side drum instead (same thing as a floor tom-tom). Ewa Podles was excellent.
Worst live Mahler performance ever attended: Solti/CSO M5 (Davies Hall; very late in Solti's career)
-
Three excellent ones stand out for me:
M9 - Berlin PO/Abbado at the Proms, Albert Hall, London, 1990
M7 - Philharmonia/Salonen, RFH, London 2005
M3 - Hallé O/Elder (recently knighted I'm pleased to say), Bridgewater Hall, Manchester 2007
And the worst:
M1 - Philharmonia/Masur, Proms: totally boring, and agricultural conducting.
M4 - CBSO/Norrington, Leeds - wrongheaded interpretation amateurishly conducted.
-
You mean you really have been to all these concerts?? Wow, I envy you
John
I have been to some more but these are the good ones.
But i think Barry beat all of us.
Also i forget to mention:
Chailly/RCOA M7(1995) One of the best. He used a monster grancassa(big drum), espesialy build for Mengelberg. The Dutchs found these instrument in the vaults of Contertgebau and used also in the recording. You can hear it in the middle of the last movement.
And one very dear to me-the first Mahler symphony i heard live
M4 Tonkustler orchestra Wien with the great Greek maestro Miltiades Karidis. The soloist was the much lamented Arleen Auger in 1981
-
Alpsman, your attendance record is amazing; where the hell do you live??? ???
The best: M5 by Abbado & BPO at Carnegie Hall some 10+ years ago.
The worst: M6 by Maazel with NYPO at Avery Fisher Hall a year-two later IIRC.
(I no longer have my concert memorabilia = exact dates available.)
PT
-
PT
I live in Athens Greece. There is here a nice concert hall( from 1991). There are a lot foreing orchestras(the local symphony orchestras are not good), but unfortunately espelially from Europe(I want to hear and the big Americans).
Also there is a festival from the 50,s in the old Odeion Herodus exactly under Acropolis. There were concerts there with the very great Mitropoulos, maybe the pioneer of the Mahler revival.
-
Oh, I forgot about
Ozawa/Saito Kinen Orch. M9 (SF, I was with Barry :D)
Schwarz/SSO M3, M6, M9 (Seattle)
Eschenbach/BSO M1 (Tanglewood)
Solti/CSO M5 (Austin, TX)
John,
-
Wow!
If only I'd have attended so many wonderful performances!
My list of great concerts I attended is:
- M1 - Chailly/RCOA, Utrecht 1995 (my first 'live' Mahler)
- M5 - Vonk/Arnhem Philharmonic, Nijmegen 1995
- Das Klagende Lied - Haenchen/Netherlands Philharmonic, Amsterdam 2000
- Das Lied von der Erde - Sieghart/Arnhem Philhamonic (Stotijn, Litaker), Nijmegen 2006
- M3 - Renes/Arnhem Philharmonic, Nijmegen 2000 (farewellconcert of Jard van Nes)
- Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Chailly/RCOA (with Ziesak, Goerne, Fulgoni and Winbergh), Amsterdam 1999
- M8 - Chailly/RCOA, Amsterdam 2000
- M7 - Svetlanov/Residentie Orchestra (The Hague Philharmonic), Utrecht 1997
- M5 - Chailly/RCOA, Nijmegen 1997
- M4 - Chailly/RCOA (Ziesak), Amsterdam 1999
Freddy
-
The best (most memorable):
Klemperer M2 1971
The worst:
Allsopp M9 and M10 recently in Poole with the Bournemouth SO - it pains me to say it after the sexist controversy a while ago, but she just couldn't find the thread of eith
-
My best:
Chaiily/RCO/M10/RKL/Avery Fischer/NY
Macal/NJSO/M6/New Brunswick/NJ
Ivan Fischer/NYPO/M5/Avery Fischer/NY
Boulez/VPO/M3/Carnegie Hall
Barenboim/CSO/M7/Carnegie Hall
Zander/M8/Boston Phil/Carnegie Hall
TilsonTomas/SFO/DLVDE/Hampson/Schade/Carnegie Hall
Zander/M9/Boston Phil/Carnegie Hall
My worst:
Temirkanov/Baltimore Sym/M1/Baltimore
Vatz
-
I live in Athens Greece...the very great Mitropoulos, maybe the pioneer of the Mahler revival.
Must say I'm slightly suprised that Athens is this much of a happening place when it comes to classical music (looking at your track record!). On the other hand all the Athenians I've met have been very impressive in their knowledge of classical music, too (among other things), so maybe it shouldn't be so surprising.
Mitropoulos gets always too little credit for his work in introducing Mahler's music (or basically gets too little credit for anything). But he was excellent in this and an extraordinary conductor in all of his repertory in fact. The relative dearth of recordings by him is such a big pity (and the relatively inferior recording quality many of them possess) and I wish he had lived even just a little longer -- that could have changed much. He lived fighting against prejudices and promoting new music, and died conducting Mahler if I remember correctly. Today all that's remembered of him is his Prokofiev and aspects of his personal life. What a driven, intense personality he was, too.
A point well taken, then.
PT
-
Klemperer M2 1971
Now that is something else. I could not be more envious.
PT
-
My best:
Boulez/VPO/M3/Carnegie Hall
Yes, I forgot this. I was there too and it was indeed really very special.
PT
-
I tried a post yesterday for this, and just didn't end up liking it, so I deleted it and started again. I think the toughie is I loved almost all of them at the time. I don't know what I'd think now, except that the Slatkin M2 I heard in the 90's was just so-so (with those weird Rattle-like touches during the opening measures); and a pretty lackluster Macal M5. I'll be curious to hear the Vonk M4 when it's released this fall on Pentatone.
All are with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra unless otherwise noted. So, here's the list in the order heard:
-M9 Slatkin 1993
-M10 (Mazzetti) Slatkin 1994
-M3 Slatkin, singer Maultsby 1994
-M5 Slatkin 1995
-M1 Slatkin 1996
-M5 Tilson Thomas/San Francisco Symphony Orchestra on tour at Powell Hall 1996
-M4 Vonk/Barbara Hendricks 1996
-M1 Vonk 1997
-M6 Welser-Most 1998
-M7 Slatkin 1998
-M5 Vonk 1999
-M3 Vonk 1999 singer Maultsby again!
-M7 Welser-Most 2000
-M2 Vonk 2001
-M4 Vonk 2002 (Esther Heideman, singer)
-M5 Macal 2003
-M2 David Robertson 2004
-M7 Alan Gilbert 2004
-Das Lied von der Erde, Robertson, 2005 (Michelle De Younge, Stuart Skelton)
I missed chances in recent seasons to hear Pinchas Steinberg do the 1st, and Libor Pesek do the 4th, but friends said both weren't great performances. Who would've thought I would've heard the 7th 3 times!
Regards,
Steve
-
and died conducting Mahler if I remember correctly.
Polarius T you are right.
Mitropoulos died during a rehearseal of M3 in the first bars of the second movement, in Milan with the orchestra of La Scala.
I have seen the page where the oboist of La Scala, have noticed that in this point maestro Mitropoulos fell down.
A month earlier Mitropoulos had conduct the Vienna philharmonic, in M9. It's a recording in the Andante box with Bruckner8(Karajan) and Heldenleben(Bohm), but the sound as with all Mitropoulos recordings is not good-actually really bad. But the atmosphere is tremendous.
-
The best (most memorable):
Klemperer M2 1971
The worst:
Allsopp M9 and M10 recently in Poole with the Bournemouth SO - it pains me to say it after the sexist controversy a while ago, but she just couldn't find the thread of eith
I heard Alsop's 10th on a BBC rebroadcast. Nothing special for sure.
-
These would be my favorite live Mahler performances (in no particular order):
Barenboim / Staatskapelle Berlin - M5 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Barenboim / Staatskapelle Berlin / Fritz, DeYoung - DLvdE (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Barenboim / Staatskapelle Berlin - M1 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Jansons / RCO - M6 (Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg)
Jansons / RCO - M1 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Abbado / Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Larsson - M3 (Royal Albert Hall, London)
Gilbert / DSO Berlin - M6 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
DeWaart / DSO Berlin - M7 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Rattle / BPO - M9 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Rattle / BPO / Koczena, Isokoski - M2 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Rattle / BPO - M10 (Cooke) (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Worst (i.e. most boring ever):
Mehta / BPO - M7 (Philharmonie, Berlin)
Also disappointing:
Eschenbach / Philadelphia Orchestra - M1 (Stadthalle, Braunschweig)
Maazel / NYPO - M5 (Stadthalle, Braunschweig)
-
I envy you all!!!
I have not heard many Mahler performances (I generally don't enjoy live concerts, because of crowds, and my hearing is actually pretty bad in a live setting), but a few are quite memorable:
de Waart/Minneapolis Orchestra- M7-(Ordway, St. Paul, MN)
Foster/Aspen Festival Orch - Das Lied von der Erde (Aspen, CO)...can't recall the singers at the moment. The rehearsal was even better than the performance.
--Todd
-
I generally don't enjoy live concerts, because of crowds,
Yes the crowds is a problem, espesially in works like M9,M6 or M2 or DLVDE, where someone longs desperatelly ( me at least), to be alone to sob, cry or meditave.
Then there is the problem with all these morons who burst into wild apllause and shoutings immediatelly after these works or Tchaik.6 or Liebestod or Wintereisse or......This way they confirm that they understanded nothing at all, and they exhibit only their knowledge that the piece ends.
But the experience of the live event as sound and effort of the musicians( players and maestro), is unbeatable.
-
The ones that spring to mind:-
My first ever live - M1/LSO/Solti (1965)
M3/Horenstein (I was also at the Unicorn recording sessions)
M7/Bernstein (c.1967)
M7/Horenstein (Proms 1970)
M6/Barbirolli (Proms '65 and '67 - the latter was better brass)
M9/Boulez (BBC studios, maida Vale c.69)
M2/do you know, I can'r remember!!! (RFH, c.66 - the most blown-away by a performance)
M6/James Blair - Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra. I cried and cried for about 10 minutes, into a girlfriend's arms. got blair's aurograph, went home, and cried a load more.
Don't think I'm ever disappointed, tho the Kensington (suburb of inner West London) SO (c.71) was technicallt the worst, but I loved hearing Mahler thru the buzz-saw.